Will You Be My Tami Taylor?
by Magali1
Summary: Tyra gets asked a question after witnessing Tami being Tami. Happy feel-good fluff fic. Tyra POV, with major appearances by Lyla, Tami, and Julie. One-Shot. Major Fluff Warning.


**A/N:**Like most fics, this comes from nowhere and is just a happy fluffy fic. Enjoy :)

* * *

**Will You Be My Tami Taylor?**

"I can't handle her!"

Uh-oh, Tyra thought, glancing across the table at the better half of the screaming woman inside the house. She finished stuffing a Ring Pop into a little plastic party-favor bag, tying it with pink and blue ribbon. "You might want to abandon ship," she advised, lifting her eyes up from the perfect bow she'd just formed, already seeing Tim running for his hideaway in the barn. Good man. Never get between a woman and her mother.

Lyla stormed out of the house, her stomach jutting the way. "What's that?" she demanded, pointing with her cell phone to the pile of onesies that weren't folded. She glared at Tyra. "I told you no stupid baby games."

Yes, you did, to which I agree, but this isn't stupid. So she told her. "They're not stupid, besides this gets everyone to basically design onesies for the twins, which you're going to be going through like water, trust me, I was there for my nephews." She finished another gift bag, setting it in the box with the rest. It felt like the entire city of Dillon was going to be there for the baby shower of Tim Riggins's twins. Just went to show what happened when their grandfather was a football Booster, she supposed. Everyone got involved. She sighed. She wasn't a fan of Lyla, never had been and probably never will be, but with an angry pregnant woman who terrified her husband to run away at the sound of her raised voice, Tyra felt she was the only one who could sort of intervene. "What's wrong?"

The other woman sank down into Tim's vacated seat, covering her stomach with her hands. "I'm going to kill him if this gives me stretch marks," she mumbled. She glared sideways. "Do you know what happens when you're pregnant with twins? Every time I sneeze, I pee a little."

"Yeah, that's a drag." She was never getting pregnant. Between Mindy's no filter pregnancies and this one, Tyra was done with that. She also got to overhear a lot that went on with Julie's one, perfect little baby. And Julie even had a perfect pregnancy, with nothing to complain about. Barely gained twenty pounds. She cleared her throat. "So how long do you have left?"

"Two weeks and my mother isn't coming." Lyla sniffed, shaking her head slightly. She mumbled, her hands rotating again over her stomach. "Whatever. No big deal."

It seemed like it was a very big deal. Tyra glanced up when the front door opened, hearing a loud "Yoo-hoo!" yodel through the house.

"Out here!" she shouted. Thank God. The savior had arrived. Tami appeared in the doorway, pushing her sunglasses up and widening her eyes, running straight for Lyla who managed to crack a small smile.

"Look at you!" Tami exclaimed, leaning down to give her a big hug. "Oh sweetie you look amazing. Two babies, huh? I wouldn't have been able to tell. I was like that in my seventh month with Gracie." She dropped her tote bag down on the porch, taking a seat at the table. She lifted one of the mess of white onesies. "Are we going to be painting these?"

"That's the plan," Tyra drawled, rolling her eyes. Why did she get stuck planning this thing? Oh that's right, she lost the coin toss with Mindy. She felt a little bad, glancing at Lyla, who was staring off into nothing. Even after all this time, Lyla still didn't have many friends, if any. It was just…Tim. As far as Tyra knew, when they spent their time in Austin, during the school year, when Lyla was teaching, they still didn't have very many outside their Dillon circle.

It seemed odd to her that someone as bubbly and happy as Lyla wouldn't have friends, but she'd done her homework while getting her psychology degree and had Lyla pegged. She was a woman who either was jealous of other woman or was competing with them. Friends didn't have a place in that. She glanced back at Lyla, who was now twisting her rings around on her hand. "You alright there Lyla?" Tami asked, still folding the onesies. She lifted one up, frowning. "How many did you get?"

"We went to Costco and pretty much got an entire pallet."

"These are going to be most of the laundry I guess. Or do they plan on tossing them every time a kid gets sick on them?"

"Well it's Tim, there's a chance it's just getting thrown out," Tyra joked. She took a stack of them, shoving them into a bag. That's done. She glanced at Tami. "Is Julie here yet? I thought their plane came in yesterday."

"They're visiting Lorraine in the nursing home, but they'll be around for the baby shower tomorrow," Tami said. She glanced at Lyla, clearing her throat. "Lyla? You okay? You're not saying much." She folded her hands on the table, still looking at her.

The other woman finally tore her gaze away from the horizon. "Nothing," she sighed. She cleared her throat, looking at her hands again. "My mom just called." She looked up, trying to smile, but it was pained. "She's not coming to see the babies born….doesn't want to deal with my dad or Angela and I just…that was so long ago! She could show up to see her kids born! And then she's mad at me because I told her that I threw out the hemp clothing that they got and the nature basket full of some sort of weird organic soy formula mix. She's not controlling these kids, I don't care what she thinks!"

Okay, this is a conversation for you two, Tyra thought, getting out of her chair and collecting the bags of onesies and boxes of favors. Tami sat beside Lyla, her hands folded in her lap, and her head cocked, beginning to listen. As she left, she heard Tami quietly say "Maybe you need to talk to your mother, get this out."

And the world would continue spinning, Tyra thought, putting everything in her car. She drove it out to Mindy and Billy's, setting them inside. There was no one home, so she got back in her car, driving off towards the old Saracen house, where Matt, Julie, and their adorable little boy Henry stayed when they came in from Chicago to visit Lorraine. "Hey Shelby," she called, seeing Matt's mother in the front, weeding the flower beds. She waved. "Is Julie around?"

Shelby waved back, gesturing to the house. "She's out back. Henry, no, no we don't eat weeds," she chastised, removing a clump of dandelions from the chubby little toddler's hands. She nodded towards him, chuckling. "You want to take this little dude back there? I've got my hands full getting these weeds out and all he wants to do is eat them."

Henry looked up, his face beaming bright at the side of her. "Ty!" he shouted, throwing his hands up and then down to the grass, pushing himself up on his Nikes, toddling towards her.

"Hello big man," she said, trying hard not to slip baby talk into her voice, but she couldn't help it. He was just so damn cute. She nibbled on his fat cheeks, grinning at his shriek of happiness. "You taste so good! Come on, let's go see Mommy." She carted him through the house and out back, where Julie had her head buried in her laptop, a stack of papers beside her. "Um, you know you could not work while on vacation. That's kind of the point."

"I'm a grunt journalist Tyra, do you know how hard it was to actually get a job in a dying media?" Julie griped. She checked a book open in her lap and then began to type, talking matter-of-fact, her gaze never breaking from the screen. "I did four years in school, three in graduate school, and all that time I was stringing along on blogs and weeklies and getting coffee for grunt journalists at the _Chicago Sun-Times_, and now, about three years of freelancing later, I have a job and I am going to make sure they keep me and I'm not one of the many casualties as the art continues to die."

She blew out a hard puff of breath. "Whatever, I almost died listening to that excuse, get your butt up Taylor, we're going shopping."

"I have a deadline."

Tyra lifted up Henry, sticking him out so Julie had no choice but to look up, her face kind of melting a little. "Mommy, Mommy, pay attention to me," Tyra said, putting on a fake baby voice. She hated doing stupid things like that, but it made Julie laugh and shut the damn laptop, so she'd do it again if it had the same success rate. She passed him off, clapping her hands. "Come on, we have to go find a good baby gift for Tim."

"And Lyla."

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, Lyla did come with Tim nowadays. "Whatever. They're registered at Target and I don't really want to do the whole thing of just getting them what they want."

"Well that's the point of registering." Julie grabbed a prepacked baby bag. She shrugged. "I didn't want to register because I didn't really want to even be pregnant, but I got a good deal out of it all in the end." She pecked Henry's cheek. "Got a great deal, actually. Even though my mother feels like she has to comment on my parenting style most of the time."

Angela didn't really do that with Mindy, Tyra thought. It seemed to be common though. "I'm never having kids," she decided, as they climbed into Julie's rental SUV, with Henry's babyseat in the back. A few minutes later, they were on the road, and she repeated it. She glanced at Julie, who wasn't giving her a response. She shrugged. "I feel kind of bad for Lyla right now."

Julie hit the brakes, glancing sideways. "Did anyone else feel the shift in the time-space continuum?"

She rolled her eyes. It wasn't that big of a deal. "Look, your mom is with her now, but…but I don't think her mother is fully on board with the whole grandma thing and she just called Lyla and told her she wasn't going to be there for the birth. Kind of upset her." And for some reason it bothered her as well. Angela was there for Mindy, as absent as she tended to be with them, at least she was there for the big moments. She shrugged again. "Your mom is dealing with the situation."

"You know as annoying as I can find my mother, she's good for this sort of thing," Julie said. She turned off of the road and onto one of the main drags to take them out of Dillon and to Westerbee, which had the mall. "Well she isn't annoying, but she just…she does this thing where I ask her a question about maybe I might be doing something wrong with Henry and she just says, with that accent and voice of hers…" Julie cocked her head, pitching her voice to an almost perfect Tami impersonation. "Well I don't know sweetie, what do you think about it?"

"Classic."

"I know, right? Then she casually suggests what I might do and I'll be damned if it doesn't work with him."

Tami had that way, Tyra thought, looking out her window. It was why she'd chosen to go into social work. Every college kid started their first year like they could change the world, go into politics or start their own nonprofit or something. She'd learned that it wasn't that level that got stuff done, it was at the lower level, so that's what she was doing. If she could even be remotely as good at her job as Tami, she'd be happy. Damnit. Why couldn't she shake this feeling about Lyla? "So what am I going to buy Tim and Lyla's twins?"

"The gifts aren't for the twins, they're for the parents. That's the point of a baby shower."

"Most of their crap is from Billy and Mindy, I don't know what else they need."

"So get them something they want."

"I don't know what that is!" she laughed. She shook her head, sighing again. "Sucks for Lyla though. I hope your mom can help out."

Julie pulled into a parking space in front of the mall. She unbuckled her seatbelt, turning off the car. "Eh, who knows, but Tami Taylor is on the case. Let's go, I have an idea for you."

"What kind of an idea?"

"Baby gift idea."

Tyra shrugged, following her into the mall. She gestured towards one of the baby clothes stores. "I think they have a thing there."

"Well first, it's a registry and they won't have one at a clothes-only store. They probably have one in here," Julie said, walking into Babies-R-Us. She went to a machine, typed in a few things, and printed off about twenty pages worth of items, holding it up. "Let's shop for them and then we're going to find some new shoes."

Ooh, shoe shopping, she could do that. Tyra shrugged. "Let's go."

* * *

"What is that supposed to be?"

Tyra glanced at her onesie, holding her paint brush aloft. She shrugged. "I don't know. Abstract." She glanced at Julie's onesie, which had a perfect replica drawing of the Dillon Panthers logo. "Hey, when did you get so good at art?"

"Since I started sleeping with an artist," Julie said, reaching for her drink. She tapped it to Tyra's. "You want me to get you a refill?"

"Naw, I'll get it." She needed to pour way more vodka in it than she'd originally managed to get from Billy, who had the flask. Lyla had put it out there that if there was even the scent of liquor, she'd eat that person alive. Apparently she'd been going through some significant withdrawals according to Tim, who had decided to take the pledge with her. They all knew he was smuggling beer in and claiming it was just extra-frothy apple juice.

She nudged at Billy, who was standing with Tim and his "apple juice." Billy turned slightly, removing the flask from his back pocket. "How much you want? I gotta' go home and fill this puppy back up."

"Check the floorboard in the study," Tim mumbled, sneaking a sip of his beer when Lyla had her back to them, opening up presents. He nodded to the glass. "That's not fair that she gets to drink."

"I'm not knocked up and I need to be liquored up to enjoy this thing." She nudged her shoulder into his, grinning. He seemed overwhelmed. "So how's it feel knowing you're gonna' be a daddy in a few weeks?" The premise was a little overwhelming to her. It seemed just like yesterday he was…well, doing the same things he always did but with a lot less maturity to him. She arched an eyebrow when he didn't reply, too busy looking across the porch at Lyla, who was seated in one of the built-ins, opening up another gift, Mrs. Taylor sitting beside her writing down who brought what. Tyra smiled, waving her hand in front of his face, dragging his attention back to her. "Hey. Look at me."

He shrugged. Shutting down, are we, she thought, smiling a little. Just because she wasn't with Tim anymore didn't mean she didn't know his moods. Or try to help drag him out of them when they got bad. "Doesn't seem real," he mumbled, looking away. He sighed hard, his voice quiet. "Lyla's not…she's mad about her mom. I can't make it better. Can't make them get along."

It'd be easy if we could do that with everyone. "Mrs. Taylor was working on it," she said, smiling softly. If anyone could bring two people to a consensus, it was her. "I'm sure things will work out fine."

"I hope so." Tim sighed again, shrugging and glanced at her again. He nudged his shoulder into hers. "Thanks for coming. I know this is weird for you."

"Not weird," she answered. She wasn't sure what it was. "Just…a little weird, yeah," she chuckled. Being around your brother-in-law who happened to be your ex-boyfriend and ex-booty call was a little weird. Especially when his wife was someone she couldn't stand growing up and even now had problems dealing with from time to time. "So when are you guys going back to the house in Austin?" Let's change the subject.

"Lyla's gonna' take three months maternity leave, which puts her at Christmas, so we're going back after Christmas." Tim seemed happy about that. He sighed. "Kids will be born here and then we'll bring them to Austin. This will be the…summer house, I guess."

"It already is the summer house," she laughed. She nibbled on her lower lip, lifting her eyebrow again. Just say it Tyra. "You know…if you guys need help with anything…I'm only across town." They didn't live that far apart from each other. Just an entire city between their house in the Lake Travis area and hers near UT. It was a little awkward, seeing as they only ever saw each other when they were both in Dillon.

Tim seemed relieved. "Really?" he asked.

"Really." Before I change my mind. She sipped her drink, shuddering. Billy put in way too much vodka. "I'm not that far and I helped Mindy with the twins and I don't care how great you guys are, but you both are going to need some help. At least to start off."

He flung his arms around her. "Thank you!"

"Tim let go of me."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he chanted again, lifting her off her feet. She yelped, punching his shoulder to get him to drop her. He planted a big kiss on her cheek, grinning. "Thanks."

It took her a moment to realize why he seemed so pleased with himself. Asshole! She punched his shoulder again. "You did that on purpose! You made me feel guilty so I'd offer!"

"I'm good," Tim drawled, sauntering off and throwing a smile over his shoulder as he sank down on the bench beside Lyla, taking whatever it was that she had in her hands and fiddling with it. Tyra rolled her eyes when he practically threw it across the porch at Billy, who jumped away. It was a breast pump. Such children, she thought, rolling her eyes and walking back into the house.

Almost no one was actually in the house, so she tidied up the kitchen a bit, sticking some dishes in the dishwasher and removing a couple of trash bags for cleanup. She lifted her head when the doorbell rang. No one else heard it, so she walked through the large open-expanse ranch-house, pulling open one of the double doors. "Hello," she said, greeting the woman on the other side. It took her a second before her eyes lit up. "You're Mrs…" she trailed off. Not Garrity anymore, that was for sure.

The other woman smiled a little, dragging a small suitcase in after her. "I'm Pamela, I'm Lyla's mother. Where is she?"

Very bohemian, that's what Tyra thought, taking in Pamela's appearance. Definitely why she didn't recognize her from the overly made up football wife she'd been when Lyla had been in high school. She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. "Back of the house, opening up presents." She smiled slightly, trailing after Lyla's mother, leaning against the open doorway when she stepped out into Lyla's view.

"Mom!"

Tyra smiled, in spite of herself, as Lyla jumped up, giving her mother a big hug and grinning from ear to ear. Julie came up beside her. "My mom works miracles," she commented, holding Henry on her hip. The little boy offered Tyra a piece of mangled cheese, which she gingerly accepted, holding in her hand and still smiling a little. "I asked her what she'd done, she said all she did was just get both of them to see eye to eye. Like it was no big deal."

"She's good," Tyra said. She tossed the cheese away, wiping her hands on her jeans and going back into the house, looking up when Tami walked over to help her put things away. "Thanks, you can go back out there, you know."

"No, I'm going to let Lyla have some time with her mother. Most everyone is starting to trickle out now." Tami stopped putting some cream-puffs into a container, turning her head and smiling warmly in her direction. "Those blankets you got were just beautiful."

She smirked. "Thank Julie. I was clueless."

"Well it's a lovely gift. Lyla will definitely use them for their christening."

"Yeah, well." She felt a little uncomfortable. They were just lace christening blankets. No big deal. She cleared her throat. "So Lyla and her mom are back together again, huh? They okay?"

"Just some disagreements. All you need to do is work through them. Recognize that mothers are mothers and it's really hard to watch your child make decisions on their own, but at the same time, as a child, recognize that as much as you might not like your parents' advice or decisions, they have been there and you haven't yet." Tami shoved the cream puffs into the freezer, turning back around and rolled up her sleeves, beginning to put things in the dishwasher, still speaking. "It's just the way of parents and children. Like it was with you, trying to get your mother to understand that you had options, you had a future, when all she knows is no future. She managed to let go of that fear that parents have when their child goes off into the unknown and at the same time…" she turend around, pointing at her. "You managed to respect your mother's fear and you still managed to do good things for yourself and keep the relationship."

Yeah, I suppose so. She smirked again. "Yeah, but my mom has made some terrible decisions."

"We all do at one point or another. I for one dyed my hair blonde in high school, not a good look," Tami joked. She tossed a dish-towel to her. "It was nice of you to organize this for Lyla. Poor girl still doesn't seem to have very many people close to her."

"Her best friends are both guys," Tyra said, her voice quiet. It was very true and it always had been, even in high school. She wiped down a dish, looking out the window at Tim and Jason, who were doing something stupid with Billy, Matt, and Luke. Or at least, that's what it looked like since they were all huddled together and there was what appeared to be some sort of catapult device in the works, courtesy of the twins and Stevie. She shrugged again. "She's kind of close with Becky, but Becky and Luke got transferred to Ft. Benning, so she doesn't have her around."

"Well she has you," Tami said softly. She tucked a long lock of dark red hair behind her ear, leaning on the counter and crossed her arms over her chest. She waited a moment and then spoke, still quiet and serious. "It's difficult, but when you can…can move on beyond things as intrinsic as…well quite honestly Tyra you were never friends with Lyla because you were both jealous of each other and honestly, you came from two different experiences. You're adults now and those things might still be there but in the grand scheme of things they don't mean anything. It's very good of you to…to help someone that once upon a time ago you couldn't stand to be around. You're a good person and you will do good things."

Now I feel weird. She looked up, her brow wrinkled, fighting the urge to cry. Leave it to Tami to break you when you least expect it. She swallowed the lump in her throat, her hands shaking as she put the top over a container. "Thank you," she mumbled. What was she supposed to say to that? She looked up again to say something else, but Tami was already out on the porch again, cleaning up wrapping paper.

Tyra broke away from the kitchen, going back outside. She found Lyla sitting on a swing, beneath one of the trees, alone. She took a deep breath; steeled herself, and approached slowly. "This one taken?" she asked, grabbing hold of the second swing.

"We add your weight and this thing will collapse to the ground," Lyla said, looking up at the joints of the swingset. She smiled slightly. "Which is not a crack on your weight so much as mine."

She snorted. "Whatever, you were running all up until what? Two weeks ago?"

"About two weeks ago when Baby A moved right onto my sciatic nerve." She rubbed at the spot where Baby A was apparently sitting. She poked at her stomach. "Quit that. Your brother didn't do anything."

"So it's for sure a boy and a girl?"

Lyla smirked. "Yeah. Tim picked the girl's name and I picked the boy."

"What are they?" Tyra stuck her legs out, beginning to swing slightly. She glanced at Lyla, who was looking off at the group of guys, frowning. She shook her head. "Just don't think about what they're doing."

"They've got firecrackers."

"Ignore it."

Lyla leaned back, touching her hair to the ground and then sat back up again, her toes returning to the grass. "Baby A is a girl, she's going to be Daisy. Baby B is a boy, I'm naming him Liam."

"Liam? Cool name."

"It's short for William Jason," she said, touching her hair to the ground again. When she sat back up, her pale cheeks were flushed, making her look a lot like Snow White, what with the yellow skirt she was also wearing. She smiled, her hand touching her stomach again. "Tim picked the name Daisy, because they're my favorite flowers and he said that any girl of ours is going to be just a pretty as a daisy."

That was pretty. Tim did have a romantic side to him, no one got to see it. She'd never seen it, that was for sure. She smiled again. "So your mom, huh? What went on there?"

"Oh you know, my mom was being my mom and I just…I'm not going to have my kids wearing hemp clothing and eating soybeans and stuff." Lyla sighed hard, closing her eyes. "Then Mrs. Taylor asked me what I'd do if my kid came to me saying that they wanted to be eating soybeans and stuff and I just…got a little upset because I realized that I'd let them, if that's what they wanted and…and if they didn't want to go to Sunday School or something I couldn't get mad just because that's what I want. I don't know what she said to my mom, but whatever it was got her here and now she's going to stay for the birth and a couple weeks after." She grinned. "Tim's going to freak, she hates him."

"Yeah, he doesn't seem too bent out of shape knowing his mother-in-law will be staying with you guys," Tyra chuckled.

Lyla nodded, glancing away. She cleared her throat. "I have to ask you something."

Tyra glanced sideways, swallowing hard. That could be anything. "Okay. I might not answer."

"That's fine, um….it has…" she trailed off and then quickly spoke. "It has nothing to do with Tim, just to make you calm or something."

"Okay." Then what the hell could it be?

Lyla cocked her head, her eyes narrowed a little. She finally smiled, her voice quiet. "So I'm going to need…well you know, Mrs. Taylor is in Philly and you're going to be Austin and Tim tells me you'll help out and stuff, so I just thought, well…" she trailed off, her hands going back to her stomach. "When my kids are hiding soybeans in the floor and wanting to go work in California in the fig groves with my mom and stepdad or…or they decide to abstain from alcohol or something and Tim and I are clueless about what to do with them, well…" She shrugged, her dark brown gaze meeting Tyra's. "Will you be their Tami Taylor?"

Will I be their Tami Taylor? She frowned slightly. "Um…"

"I'm going to need someone to calm me down from the ledge and…and someone they can come to when they want to do these crazy things that they know Tim and I aren't going to be able to comprehend. So I just think, you're well on that track, I mean you…you've already offered to help and you don't live far from us in Austin and well you know, you organized this whole thing and I just…" Lyla sighed again. She looked away. "I don't have very many people that I cant urn to and if I ask Jason to do it, he'll just send them straight back to Tim or he won't really understand how to…subtly do it."

Will I be the next Tami Taylor? Tyra cocked her head a little, smiling at that notion. Well that sounded nice. She glanced at Lyla again, frowning slightly at the smug smile on Lyla's face. "I haven't said yes, you know."

"I know."

"And I am definitely not as nice as Mrs. Taylor, I mean one of your little brats comes to me and starts going on about how they want to go to work in California in fig groves, I may just tell them they're going bananas and to listen to you." She held up her finger. "And I may have to kick their asses if you and Tim are going to baby them."

"I can assure you that we won't do that."

"Yeah well, Tim gets one look at his daughter and he'll be locking her in a tower for the rest of her life."

Lyla nodded in agreement. "That is true, he's already said he's going to start work on it after Coach told him about the joys of being a father to daughters."

It was still kind of nice, she thought, feeling her heart warm a little. Damnit, I'm going to lose my reputation, she thought, glaring at Lyla. "You turn me into a softie and I will kill you Garrity."

"There it is," Lyla drawled, laughing as she began to swing again. She froze, dragging her feet in the dirt and grass. Her eyes widened and both her hands went to her stomach. "Oh man."

Tyra kept swinging, looking out at the boys again. They were gathering up all the firecrackers and putting them into a bucket on the catapult. Oh geez, she thought, shaking her head. Someone was going to lose a hand. "What do you think they're doing?" she wondered out loud.

"Get Tim."

"I'm going to be your Tami Taylor, Lyla, not your maid. You get Tim."

"Get Tim now!" Lyla exclaimed.

Tyra finally looked over at Lyla, who was turning pink, breathing slowly, both hands on her stomach. She glanced down at the ground. "Oh geez."

"My water broke. Get Tim."

"RIGGINS!" Tyra bellowed. Oh man, this was it, it was time, holy shit, what was she supposed to do? She wasn't around for Mindy's births and she wasn't there for Julie either. To her babies just kind of appeared and that's how she liked it. Anything else was just gross for her. She waved her hands when Tim finally looked over. She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Babies are coming!"

"What?!"

"Babies are coming, get your ass over here now!" She sighed, helping Lyla up to the porch, where Tami and Buddy were fighting over something. Pamela stepped out of the house just in time, both of Lyla's parents lunging for her. Tyra stepped aside, glancing at Tami, who was just smiling. "Guess my work is done."

"Now we wait," Tami said, bringing her over to the table as everyone else rushed out to the car.

Jason rolled his chair up onto the back porch, gesturing to the front. "Come on, we're going to the hospital to wait."

"I'm not waiting," she commented. These kids were going to take an eternity, she could sense it. She looked over as Tami pulled out a deck of cards. "Guess we're playing cards."

Julie and Matt gathered up Henry and his things. "We're getting the little prince home to nap," Julie said.

"Before he keeps us up all night," Matt mumbled, as Henry began to fuss. "Alright, calm down, here…" he picked up a pen and drew a quick doodle on Henry's hand, satisfying the little boy. "Alright, see you later, let us know what's going on."

"Well I'm going to the hospital," Jason said. He seemed giddy. "They're having kids, can you believe it?"

"No, I really can't," Tyra drawled, checking her cards. Whatever game they were playing, she could tell she was already losing. She set a couple down, starting a game of gin rummy. She could sure use some gin too. "Hey," she said, as Jason began to wheel himself out. "Where is the gin?"

"In Tim's secret Lyla hidey-hole in the study. It's the third floorboard from his chair. Hers is the fourth floorboard from her chair."

What the hell? Tyra shrugged, getting up and went into the study. She kicked her boot heel down on the floor until she heard a hollow sound, kneeling down and pushed as the floorboard, looking in and seeing a few boxes. No gin. She reached in and removed one box, opening up the top. It was Lyla's, she immediately guessed, seeing nothing but photos and little mementos. Nice. Some were really old and some were relatively new. But none of it was going to help find gin. She moved over to the other, whooping. This was clearly Tim's, as all the booze was socked away in it. She grabbed the gin, going back out to the porch. It was just Tami left. "Where's Coach?" she asked.

"He was around here somewhere, I guess he got snagged by Buddy to go to the hospital. Poor Lyla, with Buddy there. I can understand wanting your mother, but your dad? She's going to be kicking him out within minutes." Tami took the glass of gin, taking a long sip and gasping. "Whoo! That's strong. Oh, forgot to toast." She lifted the glass back up, smiling wide and clinking it to Tyra's. "To the little things. Babies included."

I have something else, she thought, smiling and clinked her glass back to Tami's, her voice soft. "To the Tami Taylors."

Tami cocked her head, smiling. "Oh?"

"Yeah, because somewhere out there a kid needs the person who is going to let them be themselves, no matter what their parents dictate." She didn't want to explain it to Tami, who seemed to frown slightly. She sat back and picked up her cards again. "So if I have any questions about helping these kids out, you'll take my call, right?"

Tami chuckled. "Yes honey, I'll take your call."

Good, Tyra thought. Just because I'm the next Tami Taylor doesn't mean that I can't consult the original.

* * *

** THE END**


End file.
